County Targets Alleged Drug Dealer`s Assets

Drug dealers often are portrayed as favoring the plush and flashy in their choice of street vehicles.

But Alberto Ramirez, 29, of Bensenville, allegedly a wholesaler of cocaine, preferred something more practical: Mack trucks, according to a suit filed in Du Page County Court.

While profits from illegal drug sales are sometimes spent in luxury auto showrooms, prosecutors say Ramirez used his gains to buy a trucking business, which the government, in effect, now wants to confiscate.

The suit filed last week by Assistant Du Page County State`s Atty. Robert Spence lists about 100 items that are being sought, including four Mack trucks; six trailers; a small Dodge truck; two Jeeps; a Toyota Land Cruiser;

and an Allis-Chalmers lift truck.

Police originally seized the vehicles and other items in a raid July 8 on the Ramirez business, Q & R Trucking Co., 606 Western Ave., Lombard.

Also on the list of items that the county wants to confiscate are a 1.5- ton chain hoist; six computers with assorted monitors, printers and keyboards; a video camera; a man`s ring; a photocopier; two folding tables;

assorted desks, chairs, and typewriters; two air compressors; and a gas generator.

The petition asks for a court order declaring the goods to be forfeited to the Illinois State Police because they were purchased with the profits from illegal drug transactions.

The July 8 arrest of Ramirez was one of several made that day by Chicago police and other law enforcement agencies during raids on alleged cocaine dealers who were suspected of supplying large quantities of drugs to the city`s South Side.

Charges related to cocaine delivery are pending against Ramirez and six other persons in Cook County.